Friday, June 27, 2014

Welcome to another month of Elah Tree and my Cooks in the Kitchen Challenge! Cooks in the Kitchen is an opportunity to meet new bloggers, readers, friends; and COOK. We provide you with your main ingredient to cook with, then you have the rest of that month to scour through your recipes and find the perfect one. Then, at the end of the month, we will have a link up on both of our blogs where you can submit your recipe and blog post of your cooking creation and see how others tackled the same main ingredient. Super fun.

In month's past we have cooked with semi-sweet chocolate, limes, and also with spinach. This last month's theme was one of my personal favorites- strawberries... Ahhhh, it's like heaven in fruit form.

The rules are simple: make whatever your little cooking heart wants! Only rule, a main ingredient of your dish HAS to be the theme (in this case, strawberries). Easy enough. Strawberries are so fun to use!

So, hold the phone. How delicious does Samantha's friggin no-bake cheesecake look?!?! When it comes to cheesecakes, I'm not a huge fan of fancy ones with crazy flavors, to be honest. If I get a slice I like mine classic- with a little whipped cream and piled high with fresh strawberries. So, uhhhh this beauty? RIGHT up my alley! And it's a no-bake version? Shoot. Guess what's being made over and over again during summer once it gets to heating up in our neighborhood...

I went a different route and decided to try my hand at donuts. Right now, donuts are like, THE thing. And honestly, other than culinary school 10+ years ago, I had never made any. I've definitely eaten a few though...if you know what I mean. *Oink*

My tiny kitchen does not include a fryer nor do I like cooking with CUPS of oil, so when my husband surprised me with this Wilton baked donut pan, I knew there would be donuts in our immediate future!

And donuts there were! Lots and lots (and lots) of baked donuts! First few batches were a little sketchy, but I learned pretty quickly the importance of NOT over baking. Baked donuts need to come out the slightest bit under baked, but by no means raw. Once that timer goes off, if they look moist, pale on the tops, and slightly springy when you press down- they are dunzo.

So used to baking cakes and cookies, I was always looking for a nice golden brown coloring along the surface and a firm spring back when I pressed the top. Not the case with these. That's an over baked donut and will result in a dry, crumbly cake. Sure, the bottoms of the donuts (which will turn into the tops) get a little golden color, but what you see when you pull the pan out needs to be pale and light. To get the moist, melt in your mouth feel, stick with the above. Trust me.

3. Add wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and beat together until just combined. There should be no lumps.

4. To easily get that donut batter into your donut pans you can either fit a piping bag with a large circular piping tip (I used a Magic Tip 9pt sized tip) OR use a gallon-sized ziplock bag with one of the corners snipped off. Either way, fill that bag and pipe batter into your pans so that they are 3/4 of the way full.

5. Bake pan in the center of your oven for about 9 minutes (no longer), turning pan around half way through baking to ensure even cooking and browning. Donuts are done when they have puffed, the tops spring back slightly when touched and are golden brown around edges and bottom. Please note- the tops (which will be the bottoms) will not turn golden brown. If they do, you risk over baking your donuts.

6. Let donuts cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack. Donuts need to be completely cooled before they can be dipped and glazed.

To make the glaze:

1. While the donuts are cooling, add your jam and milk to a small (preferably non-stick) saucepan. Heat over a low flame, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has melted completely. Do not boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

2. In a medium sized bowl, add your sifted powdered sugar. Pour your cooled milk and jam mixture into the bowl and whisk until combined very well. There should be no lumps.

3. Once donuts are cool, flip over so you are dipping browned side into glaze. Dip top half only, one at a time into the glaze, twisting so the glaze really sticks to each. Carefully lift up and place back on rack to set up. Glaze should be thin enough to coat entire top of donut but thick enough to not slide down sides. If need be, dip again once glaze sets up on donut. Depending on the brand of the jam you used, you may need to thin out the glaze with more milk or thicken it up with more powdered sugar. You want the glaze to be a like a slightly thin pancake batter. Let set up 5 minutes before eating or redipping.

Berries are still so very very in season right now. So, we figured we needed to take massive advantage of that on do two months in a row of a berry theme. We hope you won't mind...but we doubt you will. Strawberries were so fun for me this month; my brain is already going a million miles an hours thinking of what to incorporate blueberries into. Eeeeeep! I may be JUST as excited about this next month as I was last month.

Totally July worthy too. With fourth of July coming up pretty quick, these blueberries will make the perfect addition! Happy cooking!

If you are indeed participating in our challenge, would you be so kind as to grab a button/ badge and display it on your blog for all to see?

Also, if you are interested in advertising your blog and/or shop, head on over here and find out how to do so! Through the end of the month make sure you enter code: JUNELOVING for 20% off ANY ad spot on Sweet Lavender Bake Shoppe! Wheeeeeee!

Yay! It's THE BEST donut pan ever. Wish it had 12 spaces instead of 6, but I guess that would make it HUGE. As of now I only have the one though, haha. So a half dozen is all we get. Which I guess is a good thing ;)

I did! And I DID! I, personally LOVED it. I mean don't get me wrong- it was the hardest work ever and such an intense experience. BUT, I knew food and pastries were my passion and I knew I wanted to work with food in some capacity as my career, so it was 100% worth it to me. Every day was a new adventure, a challenge and a lesson learned with the culinary field. I don't know if I would personally go just as a hobby ONLY because it needs 100% of your life for a good year and a half to 2 years AND is pretty pricey. As a college, the price was great and worth it, but as a hobby, a bit much. Hope that makes sense! Do whatever you feel called to do. Might spark something in ya! ;)

I don't think culinary school would be worth 2 years for a hobby, I agree with you. What I do love though is that I can learn a tip or trick from everyone's kitchen I visit. Seriously! I've learned so much that way. I have also taken a cooking class here and there, which has been fun too.

Stopping by from the Jack of All Trades link-up! I never even knew there was such a thing as a donut pan... very cool. Your donuts came out looking delicious + lovely! I'm going to print this recipe for my dessert cookbook -- it looks like a definite winner :)

Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

Hey friends, I feel it's time for a little update :) Any comments which might be found inappropriate to myself or my readers, including but not limited to: Spam, Offensive or Rude Comments, Vulgar Language, and Self-Promotion Spam, will be deleted.